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A battle-scarred town goes to polls

BATTICALOA: The change, at least on the surface, is remarkable. For a town that has been in the thick of an intense war between the Sri Lanka forces and the LTTE over a year ago, the calm and signs of return to near-normal civic life on the eve of the first-ever poll to elect the Eastern Provincial Council are unbelievable.

The private armies, particularly cadres of the breakaway Karuna faction that openly manned the main streets along with the Sri Lankan forces in full military gear, have disappeared. At least they are no longer visible to an outsider passing the route to the town from Colombo.

The Karuna group, now taken over by Pillian after a factional war, is of course in the forefront of the electoral battle with the full backing of the Mahinda Rajapaksa government. Its aim is the post of Chief Minister. The ambitious goal certainly seems to have mellowed down the party leadership and the cadres vis-À-vis their approach to the electorate.

The larger question whether it will remain the same, once the formality of May 10 is dispensed with, has to wait. Though there is no evidence of rejoice among the people at the prospect of a brand new elected provincial council, they certainly seem to treat it as a welcome breather.

The town and most part of the district are free from the sounds of shells and artillery. There is life in the city after 6 p.m. and people no longer fear the unknown. Compared to the rest of the island, barring the north, the cost of living is no doubt high but certainly not as bad as it was a year ago.

The problems of the internally displaced persist but they are confined to a few pockets and are helped to the extent possible by international and national NGOs. The government focus seems to more on selling the ‘liberation package’ than the real issues faced by people, particularly the hundred thousand displaced from the so-called high and no-so-high security zones.

One of the most visible effects of the developments in the last one-year-plus in the district is on infrastructure. The so-called highway from the national capital to the town was full of potholes and blockades, either by the military or the para-military, particularly once one crossed into the east. Today it is vastly improved.

Political and diplomatic observers believe that Saturday’s Provincial Council elections will have a long term impact on the constitutional framework of the island nation in terms of wider devolution of powers to the provinces. The LTTE has every reason to be nervous if the eastern Provincial Council poll passes off without any major incidents, which has been the case so far contrary to expectations.

However, there is one major issue that is bothering the political and diplomatic observers. That is the possibility of heightened tensions between the Tamils and Muslims post-election.

Aspirants to the Chief Minister post are promising the electors that full implementation of the 13th Amendment would be their primary task. Pillian (Sivanesadurai Chandrakanthan), leader of the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (Tamil People’s Liberation Tigers), told the media that “If we capture power in the East, we can get the government to implement the 13th Amendment to the constitution in full.”

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